To continue reading from where the
article ended in the print Townsend Letter, begin at page 3.

To
present the essential features of the articles and case reports reprinted
in this volume, revisions have been made and sections not
directly related to the subjects have been omitted.

The use of hydrochloric acid therapy for the
purpose of strengthening key components of the immune system is such
an important and inexpensive
treatment that the whole of this wonderful booklet
from the 1930s is hereby reproduced. We know that hydrochloric
acid therapy works. We know nothing of the effectiveness or desirability
of other therapies
reported in this booklet, and so we cannot recommend consideration
for any other treatment herein reported, other than that of the clinical
use of hydrochloric acid against invasive microorganisms.

Part I

Foreword
The demand for reprints and previous issues of The
Medical World containing
articles by various contributors on the subject of hydrochloric acid
therapy exhausted the supply of material available. In order to meet
this increasing demand, we have collected, in one volume, the original
articles and minor comments which have been published in this magazine
during the past three years.

This collection of reprints is a unique feature of medical journalism
and should be of valuable aid to any physician who desires to review
the literature on this subject. It must be remembered, however, that
this volume covers but three years ending early in the summer of 1935
and that some extremely important contributions have been published
since that date. It is to be hoped that this volume will fill a long-felt
need and that it will stimulate further individual research on this
most interesting development in therapeutic procedure.

Introduction
The awakening of interest on the part of the medical profession in
the use of dilute hydrochloric acid intravenously, intramuscularly,
orally, and locally in the treatment of many disease conditions warrants
a condensed outline of the principles upon which this therapeutic
measure is based; a resume of our own experiences with it in certain
cases; a frank discussion of its limitations; and a general outline
of its possibilities. The fact that this agent is so inexpensive,
that it is not an exploited compound put out by pharmaceutical manufacturers,
and that its usefulness was developed by two practicing physicians,
working independently along entirely different theoretical lines,
brings this remedy into a position of economic importance that should
not be disregarded.

Since the days of Hippocrates, medicine has been seeking a remedy
that would be efficient in stimulating the resistive forces of the
human body to combat
disease. Even following the discovery of the bacteria as the cause of most
of the diseases to which human beings are susceptible, the efforts to stimulate
personal resistance went hand-in-hand with the effort to discover a germicide
that would destroy the bacteria without producing harmful effects on the patient.
Metchnikoff, in the early years of this century, presented his theory that
the resistance of the body to disease depended upon nuclear leucocytes. It
was not long after this that Ehrlich announced his discovery of "606," an
arsenical preparation that would destroy the spirochete of syphilis. He believed
that it was possible, through chemistry, to evolve remedies that were of tremendous
sterilizing power. Without attempting to explain the intricate features of
the "opsonic theory" of Metchnikoff and the "side-chain" theory
of Ehrlich, the fact remains that the scientific workers of the profession
split into two groups, each supporting one of these theories, although granting
the logical importance of the other. In 1931, however, the theory supported
by Ehrlich was allowed to pass into discard as being untenable.

During World War I, a practicing physician, Dr. Burr Ferguson, of Birmingham,
Alabama, entered the service of the United States Army Medical Corps, rising
to the ranks of Lieutenant-Colonel and seeing much surgical work in the hospitals
of France. After the war, he volunteered his services with the Red Cross in
Siberia, later being sent to Albania in the Balkans, where he studied typhus
fever in association with Colonel Hans Zinsser. Returning to America, he entered
the Public Health Service for a few years. After active military and public
health work, he had given much thought and attention to the effect of many
of the powerful war wounds. One of the first of his observations was the recovery
of a long-standing case of osteomyelitis following shrapnel wounds immediately
after the administration of intramuscular injections of salicylate of mercury.
In this particular case, there was no history of syphilis, and the Wassermann
was negative. He studied the blood of this and other similar patients and noted
a remarkable increase in the polynuclear leukocytes following each injection.
He continued his studies both during and after the service and discovered that
the same increase of polynuclear leukocytes was noted following the administration
of most of the so-called specific remedies, such as arsphenamin, bismuth, and
others. He presented two papers on this subject, which appear in the British
Medical Journal and the Lancet around 1925, while he was doing public health
work in England. His findings were commented upon most enthusiastically by
Sir Arbuthnot Lane, who stated that he believed that Ferguson had made a most
important contribution to science, but that his work would be ridiculed by
most of his colleagues in America. He advised him to continue his investigations.

From this time on, Dr. Ferguson studied the influence of various drugs on phagocytosis.
The effect of the intravenous injection of mercurochrome was particularly powerful
as a phagocytic stimulant, but its toxicity was dangerous. The same was true
of other remedies. His observations showed that alcohol was an active phagocytic
stimulant, but the ability of the phagocytes to combat the bacteria was lessened.
He also found that nearly all of the physiotherapeutic measures, from mustard
plasters and cantharides blisters to the most modern raido-thermic appliances,
were of very definite value in producing a marked leukocytic and phagocytic
response. The same was true of bleeding, transfusion, injections of whole blood,
injections of sterile milk, leukocytic extracts, bacterins, and other similar
measures. Their value in certain cases was unquestioned, but their action depended
solely upon the principle that was old as Hippocrates, namely the stimulation
of individual resistance.

The problem before Dr. Ferguson now was to find some remedy that would be successful
in stimulating phagocytosis, yet non-toxic. In 1927, he heard Dr. Granville
Hanes, a noted proctologist, and studied this surgeon’s technique in
treating pruritus ani by injections of 1-3000 hydrochloric acid without any
evidence of toxic effect, yet with uniformly good results. Dr. Ferguson attributed
this absence of toxicity to the fact that hydrochloric acid is one of the very
few inorganic acids that are normal constituents of the human body, and he
determined to experiment upon himself to discover whether it could be used
safely by intravenous injection. Upon his return home, he instructed his technician
to take several leukocyte counts, then give him an intravenous injection of
10 cc 1-500 solution hydrochloric acid. There was no severe reaction, as in
the cases that had received arsphenamin, mercurochrome, and donor's blood,
and the leukocyte count increased very considerably, with a definite increase
of polynuclear percentage. With this encouragement, he gave several doses of
this preparation to some of the most seriously ill patients who had failed
to respond to other forms of treatment. The effect was so spectacular that
he continued his efforts and reported his observations in Clinical Medicine
and Surgery.

Considerable skepticism was expressed by the leaders of the medical profession,
not only as to the value of such a simple procedure, but also as to the veracity
of the reports of clinical improvement. Strong criticism was voiced against
intravenous injection of such a powerful acid, even in dilute form. Many doctors
refused to give it clinical trial on this ground, and on several occasions,
Dr. Ferguson was refused permission to publish articles on the subject or to
discuss the matter before medical gatherings.

The Medical World gave honest support to Dr. Ferguson and permitted the publication
not only of articles submitted by him, but also by other physicians, including
Dr. Walter Bryant Guy, of St. Augustine, Florida, who was approaching the same
subject of hydrochloric acid therapy from a somewhat different angle, and whose
research was of equal importance. His work deserves a brief description at
this point.

Dr. Guy formulated a theory that most disease conditions, acute infections,
anemias, metabolic disturbances, and malignant cell overgrowths are direct
results of changes in the hydrogen-ion content of the lymph of the body, which
produces blockage of the lymph channels. In his studies of the growth of corn
and other forms of vegetable life, Dr. Guy had been able to demonstrate that
the absence of sufficient potassium salts in the soil would result in stunted
growth and evidence of precipitation of minute particles of iron and other
substances in the stalks. When potassium was added, the growth proceeded normally.
When dilute hydrochloric acid was also added, the growth was further stimulated.
He studied the lymph of a large number of patients suffering from carcinoma
and found that these cases showed a hydrogen-ion content much higher than that
in normal individuals. He also found that by administering the salts of potassium
in combination with dilute hydrochloric acid, either orally or by the intravenous
route, these patients made remarkable clinical improvement, and the hydrogen-ion
content of their lymph became normal. The publication of his series of articles
in The Medical World was followed by a large number of case reports by participating
physicians who greeted the new therapeutic procedure with great enthusiasm.
Dr. Guy published his first book on this subject in 1934 and a revision in
1935.

Having thus far presented a brief summary of the prodigious work of Ferguson
and Guy, it may be well to call attention to the fact that Ferguson was approached
by one of the largest pharmaceutical houses and offered a large sum of money
to cease his efforts to place his discovery before the medical profession,
except through the medium of products of this concern. Although in actual financial
distress, he refused this offer and continued in general practice, thereby
exemplifying the spirit of the Hippocratic Oath as few men have done. Similarly,
Guy presented to the profession all the results of his research, including
his formulae, and continued his work in general practice. These two instances
of utterly unselfish devotion to the interest of humanity are an object-lesson
to every practitioner.

While no attempt has been made to claim that hydrochloric acid therapy use
intravenously produces the effect described by Ehrlich as "Therapia Sterilisans
Magna" which he claimed for his original compound "606," it
is interesting to note that laboratory research showed very definitely the
actual germicidal properties of dilutions of this acid. Cultures of staphylococci
and streptococci and other organisms were destroyed within a few minutes when
mixed with dilutions 1-1000. This observation led to the use of the solution
as a local application in pustular skin affections. The effect was so spectacular
that its importance is no longer questioned. Ferguson demonstrated its efficacy
as urethral antiseptic in gonorrhea by being able to obtain negative smears
in from two to three days and alleviate the distressing symptoms of burning
and tenesmus in even less time. Even bladder irrigations of solutions as strong
as 1-500 were tolerated satisfactorily by the patients, and there was no evidence
of the destruction of normal tissue cells which often attended the use of other
antiseptic solutions, such as the silver salts, potassium permanganate, and
the like. Most interesting of all was the report by Ferguson of his success
in the treatment of a most aggravated case of pustular syphilides (secondary
stage).

The attitude of the medical profession toward the work of Ferguson and Guy
has been highly amusing and deserves a word of comment. Many research leaders,
whose observations coincided with the clinical results obtained by practitioners,
refused to allow their names to be used in connection with the work done. Others
openly ridiculed the whole theory as preposterous and refused to allow this
simple therapeutic measure to be employed in their clinics. However, it has
been found that the makers of sterile ampoules admitted frankly that the demand
for ampoules of hydrochloric acid dilutions vastly exceeded the demand for
all other preparations -- and the largest consignments were delivered in the
city where most of the open criticism and ridicule was heard! In other words,
the leaders of the profession in many places were giving the measure a full
trial and finding it efficacious, yet were unwilling to admit the fact.